Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Day +307 : : It is safer to follow insects?

I am fine today.

How do we make sure that the vegetable that we eat is pesticide free? “Just follow what insects eat,” that is the answer many would tell you. Since the vegetable is safe for the insects to eat, it must not contain too much pesticide, so we can conclude that it must be safe for human to eat. Therefore, we are advised to buy vegetables with trace of insects on it or partially eaten by insects – those with many holes on it.

The chairman of Malaysian Croplife & Public Health Association (MCPA) warned that the above argument is seriously flawed. This is because vegetable eaten by insects might contain fungus that could cause cancer. In the end, it is more dangerous than pesticides.

If the vegetable does not contain pesticide, it is safe for both insects and human. Now the insect is cleverer than human, it knows which vegetable is safe and eats them. Human said that they are quite clever too. They just follow what insects eat. But this ‘cunning’ insect leaves something more dangerous than pesticide on the vegetable for human to eat :-(

So now, do you still want to be insect's follower?

I attached the newspaper cutting regarding this for your reference. Click on it to get a larger view.
The MCPA website can be accessed here. Read the FAQ to have a second opinion of what people normally tell us.

See you next post :-)

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